Phoenix Rising
by Eagle317
Summary: Post GOF A/U When Sirius discovers the clues that James left him it will change Harry's life for good. Follow Harry on his journey to discover who he is as he struggles to live up to his family name. Evil Dumbledore!
1. Epilogue

A/M: I do not own Harry Potter. It belongs to the wonderful and talented J.K. Rowling

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The soft roar of his motorcycle engine strangely relaxed him as he rode high through the dark skies. If he was being honest he was really afraid of going back here, the place where it all his best friends had died to save their son. Immediately he felt guilty not because he didn't keep an eye on Peter but because he didn't push his anger aside and focus on what really mattered; Harry.

He could only imagine how much better the young man's life would have been but if Azkaban taught him anything it was that you can't dwell on past decisions and honestly he didn't know he would ever been able to cope with everything that led to Lily and James's deaths if it wasn't for being imprisoned.

He mostly felt bad for Harry though because the boy never had known what a true family was. He could have gave him that and much more but his younger self thought that getting revenge was a better choice. Now he knew better, especially after what Harry had just gone through. Not only did he watch another boy murdered in cold blood in front of him but he also witnessed Voldemort be reborn and had to fight him for the third time. If he could help it, Harry would never have to face those types of situations alone again.

That was part of the reason he was going back to the scene of the crime. He landed softly and dismounted his bike. He looked up at the old house which was still in ruins from the attack. He stared at it for a moment, afraid to go in, because last time while he did retrieve Harry, he did it the easy way skipping Lily and James's body and just apparated straight to the nursery and apparated out straight away. That's when his life changed; he saw the rat and rushed to give Harry to Hagrid instead of actually thinking about the situation at hand.

Finally, he decided that he had gathered enough courage and held his breath. He reached his hand slowly to the old rusty iron gate and pulled it open apprehensively and let go of his breath when nothing happened. The walk to the front door, which was blown completely off its hinges, felt like an eternity and when he reached the doorway stopped.

He took his first step into the house carefully and suddenly all the images he had played out in his mind came back to him. He looked down at the spot where he imagined James dropped lifelessly and the tears won the battle he was fighting to hold them back. The war he was waging with the contents of his stomach was soon lost as well and he began to doubt why he even came here. Then he remembered the boy that was a spitting image of his father except for those stunning green eyes and everything became clear. He was doing this for Harry.

He knew James wasn't the type of man without a plan and just knew that his friend had left something behind that he was supposed to see. When he thought about it, it made him feel even guiltier because James dropped several hints before that fateful night but in his rage Sirius forgot all about it. Now he could only hope that nothing had been touched and whatever he needed to see was still in place.

He found the place he had been looking for, James's Study, and quickly opened the door hoping that everything was still in its place. Miraculously, nothing had been touched except for the ceiling that had huge spider webs in the dusty corners of the room. His heart racing, he rushed to the desk and quickly pulled it apart looking for a clue that would help him. So far he was unlucky and only found some old pictures of Lily and James's wedding and pictures of a baby Harry zooming around on his toy broom. They were in a dusty photo album which he imagined was because of they had sat here unharmed for so long. He also noticed that on the backs were dates and times of everything, must have been Lily's doing.

He stopped when he came to a picture of James, Remus, Peter and himself from their old school days. He scowled at Peter's joyous carefree face angry that the traitor could ever be so happy. He took the picture from its sleeve and tried to set it on fire but was shocked when it wouldn't light. It must have had an anti-fire charm on it, which mad sense to Sirius but didn't stop him from inspecting the photo more.

He flipped it over and noticed Lily's writing just like all the other photo's but decided to cast Specialis Revelio on it hoping like hell something would come up. His face lit up when James's writing slowly began to appear on the back of the photo.

"For those who seek knowledge, seek the stone where my fathers stand tall and speak the words of the Marauders."

Sirius was puzzled, not because the riddle was hard to figure out, but because it was so easy. Anybody who knew anything about the Potter family knew that in their ancestral home was the great Hall of Statues where every head of the Potter throne had a statue made shortly before they died. He wondered if James's had gotten one of himself built and put there. He surely had a big enough head for it.

In that instant it all dawned on him. The only reason that Sirius himself knew this information was because the Potter home was his home after he had ran away and highly doubted that anybody else knew. That meant that this message was specifically left for him and he was supposed to go there. It also meant that James had expected him to find this message sooner and probably it was his intention that Sirius raised Harry in the same home that James himself was raised in. Matter of fact, James often joked how it was even safer than Hogwarts.

Deciding that he knew what he needing to do next he grabbed the photo album decided to inspect it for any other clues later and rushed outside to put up wards on the home so that nothing else would be disturbed. He decided to leave his Bike, he didn't have enough time to fly to Potter Manor because it was getting close to morning and surely Dumbledore would be checking in on him soon. He left it in the yard and made a metal note to return it back to Hagrid later; he really had no use for it anyways.

Sirius turned on the spot to the point where they had all had to go to before making the short walk to the home because the house was supposed to have anti-apparition wards and unplottable. He didn't expect the wards to still be up but was again surprised they were still going strong. For the second time he felt like an idiot as he remembered when he back to his own ancestral home and found the Kreacher was still keeping most but not all of the wards up. While the Black family only had one house elf alive at the time, Sirius remembered that the Potters had multiple elves which meant that they probably could keep all the wards up. He hoped that the wards were still keyed to him and that they still remembered him. He didn't really feel like dealing with a bunch of angry house elves.

When he reached the front door and knocked he realized that to make it that far the ward still were keyed to him so he opened up the door and froze when he saw four really old house elves and what must have been their children waiting at the front door with kitchen knives ready to pounce. Luckily for Sirius they did remember him.

Snoopy, who Sirius remembered was the head elf, smiled and in an old weary voice slowly spoke. "Master's Padfoot, yes. We have been waiting for you yes. Is Master Harry with you?"

Sirius paused before he spoke and said "No not this time, I promise to bring him the next time I visit."

"Please soon. Snoopy does not have much time left and I would like to see how big he has grown before my time comes, yes. Master says that you must go the Hall of Stone. I am too old to take you, yes, but I my son Droopy would be most happy to take you."

"Thank you Snoopy, I promise to bring him soon. Droopy if you would lead the way?"

A small elf bowed deeply, he must have been the runt of the family because he face touched the ground. Sirius had a small feeling that Harry would like Droopy the most and couldn't wait to bring him there.

A lot of memories came back as he walked through the large house that was different than his own. The Potter's were odd purebloods in that fact they didn't have tons of Family portraits lining the walls of their ancestral home. Not that the Blacks had many either, instead they had the family tapestry that his mother took the time to ruin when she blasted the faces off the wall that she didn't like. Now that he thought of it, most of the true Most Noble and Ancient Houses didn't have but a few portraits but each had something distinctive about their homes that was different than everyone else's. The Potter's just happened to be the Hall of Stone.

James and he never really went there when they were kids, James told him that the place was kind of spooky and freaked him out but always felt as if James was hiding something about the room from him. One day he found James coming from the room smiling and when he questioned his friend he said that his father made him go there to meet his ancestors. Sirius didn't really get it, how could James be introduced to stone?

He reached the room and Droopy bowed and quickly disappeared to leave Sirius alone with the stones. The room was round with generation after generation of the heads of the Potter household lining the outside of the walls. There had to be at least five hundred statues. He didn't know that the Potter family was this old. Sirius was amazed by the detail of every stone and wouldn't be surprised if any of this was the work of the Goblins. It took him a while to find the Statue of James's father but when he did, it was the statue next to him that caught his eye. It was of a large Stag and Sirius couldn't help but smile because it had to be James's own. Of course it was the only non-human statue in the whole place but it definitely fit James personality. He always wanted to be different. He couldn't help it as the tears started to flow freely again.

Quickly refocusing, he turned back to James's dads' statue and spoke "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

A first nothing happened and Sirius was disappointed because he didn't know what else the words of the Marauders would be but then then the middle of the room started spinning and a spiral staircase appeared leading down into an unknown room. He slowly walked down the stairs into a dimly lit tunnel and he could hear a faint buzzing noise coming from the light at the end. He walked very slowly down the tunnel which again seemed like the second eternity he had walked that night and gasped when he reaching the archway.

"Padfoot, it's about time you showed up" was the last thing Sirius heard before he faded to black.

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A/N: So what do you all think?


	2. Chosen?

A/N:Sorry for taking so long to update! Had to move in to college and get ahead on everything so I wouldn't fall behind! I hope to be updating much more frequently now that I'm settled. Thanks for your patience! Any who, I do not own Harry Potter. It belongs to the wonderful and talented J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter dropped the letter he had just received from his best friend Hermione and found himself worried and angry, more worried and angry than he ever been. Sirius was missing, which is what worried him but the fact that the entire letter contained the sentence "Harry, Sirius is missing, Love Hermione" pissed him off royally. It was the only contact Harry had had with his so called friends these first two weeks of summer. All his letters to them had gone ignored and for a moment he was happy again, but now that was all ruined.

The letter had made his anger at Ron and Hermione rise to levels that made him think he would never speak to either one of them again. If that's all they were going to tell him, then there was no point of telling him at all other than to make him worry. If Harry didn't know any better he would think that that was the letters whole purpose, to make him worry and to piss him off.

The fact that Sirius was missing only greatly added on to his misery but at the moment nothing could beat the constant video in his head of Cedric Diggory being murdered. It played over and over again and was honestly driving him quite insane. He knew that it wasn't his fault, that there was nothing he could have done but it didn't stop him from feeling guilty.

He knew that there was nothing he could do about his godfather being missing besides hope and pray that he was okay. Not that hoping and praying would help him sleep but it was all he could do. He would go out and go look for him if he wasn't afraid. Though he wouldn't admit it to anybody out loud, ever since he saw Voldemort rise from the dead he frequently looked over his shoulder. He was afraid that if he walked out that door Voldemort would be waiting just beyond the wards with his army waiting to kill him. This was the dream that usually followed the one of Cedric's death. He was almost compelled to chase it. Harry sighed, for the first time in his life he felt truly defeated, a coward stuck in a Lion's shoes.

A loud tapping sound on the window snapped Harry out of his thoughts as he looked over and saw a huge black owl with a letter attached to its leg. Harry had never seen the owl before but nothing really mattered to him at the moment. If this was to be his death, so be it. In fact death seemed like a much better option than living at the moment.

He let the owl in his room and took the letter from its leg. Walking over to Hedwig's cage, he grabbed a handful of treats and let the owl eat them from his hand. He smiled. At least now he knew that his tombstone wouldn't read death by owl. After eating the treats from his hand, Harry watched in awe as the beautiful owl spread its wings and took off through the window into the dark night sky. Obviously whoever had sent him this letter didn't need a reply.

He tore open the letter and smiled. Finally something good was happening in his life. He took hold of the letter with both hands and without a care in the world shouted "mischief managed." He felt a tight tug around his navel area and suddenly his body was being pulled through a tight space. Before he knew it he landed face first on the unforgiving cold ground.

He looked up and saw a huge Castle surrounded by large bronze statues of different mystical animals which was guarded by a very large golden gate. The mansion itself was red and gold, and in fact it resembled Fawkes in color. It was the most beautiful thing Harry had ever seen and just looking at it calmed him a great deal. He smiled, not because he was happy, no happy wasn't the word to describe it. For the first time in his whole life, even more so than Hogwarts, he felt like he was home.

He walked up to the golden gates, and admired the beautiful symbol on it. It was of a baby phoenix rising up from the ashes of death and being reborn again. Under the symbol he read the words that lied under it. "Knowledge never dies."

Harry paused for a moment to think over what it meant but when he couldn't quite figure it out continued on towards the mansion after swinging the gate open gently. It seemed so precious and he didn't want to accidently break it. His walk up to the castle felt like forever, not a normal forever but a creepy one. It was as if all the statues had their eyes trained on him and he could have sworn that one of the giant dragons winked and smiled at him as he walked by.

When he reached the giant golden doors of the castle, he paused as he saw the same symbol with the same words under it on the knocker as the golden gates. He stored it in his brain for later, it must have meant something. He paused at the knocker, he was having a battle with himself on whether he should knock or walk in. Something inside him told him it would not have been acceptable for him to knock because he felt like somehow this place was his.

He went with his gut and slowly opened the door and was greeted by a weeping house elf. It surprised him greatly when the elf ran up to him and hugged his leg and shouted "Yes! Master Harry has finally made it home, yes."

Suddenly, a memory came back to him. It was when he was a baby, but it wasn't the same green memory that always haunted his dream. He remembered this elf, only the elf was much younger. He was biting the elf's ear while the creature playfully swatted at him, laughing along with a baby version of himself. He found himself remembering a name.

"Snoopy?"

"Master Harry remembers me, yes?"

"Of course I do, you took care of me when I was a baby" Harry said lovingly, he knew the elf must have cared for him and he appreciated it.

"Yes! I did, yes. And now I must take care of you again. I am disappointed. It looks like Master has starved himself, yes."

"But Sirius told me to –"

"Master Padfoot can wait, yes! You must be fed immediately. Droopy! Loopy! Tell the kitchen elves to prepare feast for the ages! Master Harry has finally come home, yes!"

Before he could protest about eating a feast at this time of night he was dragged off through the mansion and into the dining room. He was surprised at the décor of the house. He hoped it would be like Hogwarts, filled to the ceilings with Portraits of his relatives that he could talk to and maybe even learn from. He had hoped that would be a great library with books upon books of the potter family history and spells that he had never heard of. His hopes were crushed quickly.

The corridors were empty except for the walls being lined with suits of amour that seemed to stand up a little bit straighter when Harry walked by. There we no portraits and when he asked Snoopy about a library the elf just laughed at him as if it were the funniest joke in the world. Although he felt right at home, he would be lying if he didn't admit that this place felt creepy. It seemed as if everything watched your every move and if you stepped one foot out of line you would regret it. It felt like a great beast guarding its egg's more than it felt like a house somebody would live in but that didn't matter to Harry. This was his family's ancestral home.

The dining room was different. Thousands of chairs lined the longest table Harry had ever seen is his life. He felt as if he would have walked to the end of the room and back that would pass out from exhaustion somewhere in the middle. He didn't really understand why the table was so long, so he decided to ask.

Figuring that Snoopy was behind him he asked "Why is the table long?"

Instead of Snoopy's voice filling his ears a deeper voice attacked his eardrums and Harry felt he had to listen. "If you were to look closely at every chair they all have a name, a name which belonged to the wife, daughter or unpicked son of a Potter Lord. To make it simple, every Potter who was not Head of the Ancient and Noble house of Potter has a seat here and that will never change."

Harry looked up and saw a ghost floating next to him, looking down the table as if he was trying to remember something or someone buried deep in his memory. He was as white as snow with what looked like full battle armor on and had an arrow through the middle of his forehead. It was a strange sight to see but Harry realized that this man must be one of his ancestors.

The man looked down at Harry smiled and said, "How rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Aldrich Peverell the first. You must be Harry James Potter, son of James Harry Potter. The whole castle has been waiting for you."

"Peverell? I thought this was the Ancient and Noble House of Potter?" Harry asked quickly getting over the shock of seeing a ghost, a ghost that should have been expected.

"Yes Peverell!" The ghost replied angrily.

"I'm sorry sir, but I don't know much of the family history so please forgive me for my ignorance. I planned to search the library for information about I family but there isn't one."

For the second time that night Harry watched as someone laughed uncontrollably. He didn't understand. Why was the thought of having a library so funny?

"No you must learn, like all Potters have learned before you, in the Hall of Stone. You Potter's are lucky honestly. Back in my days we would have to slave years of our lives in books to even begin to learn about the family. Ever since Bradley Potter put a curse on his own family everything has been so simple for you Potters.

"I'm sorry sir but what curse?"

"It was Bradley who cursed the Potter's to only be able to conceive boys up until they at least have seven children. Only when the wife of a Potter pops out seven children will there be even a small chance for a girl. Then only one gets chosen, and after that only the chosen ones children get to be chosen. That's why you're the 82nd consecutive only child. Having an only child makes it much easier to choose."

"To choose what Sir?"

"I suppose you will find out soon enough. I sense dinner is about to be served so it's better if you eat up lad. Well, I suppose it doesn't matter, Charlus is going to rip you a new one no matter what. I definitely would not want to be you in the morning" Aldrich said as he phased through the nearest wall and left Harry in silence.

Aldrich had definitely given Harry some food for thought to chew on later but now, just as Aldrich said it would, the real food arrived and reminded Harry just how hungry he was. He ate plenty and then ate plenty more because Snoopy said he was "much to skinny for his age, yes!" Feeling tired but full, Harry was then led up to his bedroom where he fell asleep as his head hit the pillow.

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A/N: Tell me what do you think? R&R!


	3. Believe!

A/N:I would like to thank Teufel1987 and an annoymous user for pointing out to me the obvious. I didn't think of all the questions but because of them I think I now have it covered. So I changed this chapter up a bit so I could explain stuff more. Any who, I do not own Harry Potter. It belongs to the wonderful and talented J.K. Rowling

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Harry sat up in his bed quickly and surveyed the room. He had to make sure this all wasn't just some trick that his mind played on him in the form of a dream and was beyond happy to find out that it wasn't. He didn't mind having to struggle furiously to get out of the bed that was ten times too big or tripping over Snoopy and ruining breakfast as he searched blindly for his glasses on the bedside table. Nothing could ever ruin this moment for him, he finally had a place he could call his own.

When he was finally able to see again he apologized relentlessly for ruining breakfast and snapped his head quickly to the door when he heard a deep laugh that made his eyes light up with joy. He ran over to his god father and crushed him with a hug which was happily returned.

After leading Harry to the bed so they could sit down Sirius said "there is a lot that we have to talk about but first I would like to say I'm sorry pup. Sorry for not doing what I should have done fifteen years ago and taken you home. I know that that is what James always wanted me to do but I was blinded by rage and acted foolishly. For that I beg for your forgiveness."

Harry, who thought that Sirius was overreacting slightly, replied "Don't worry about it, all that really matters is that we are here now but why didn't you tell the others where you were going? I'm sure Dumbledore would have wanted to know about you bringing me here."

Sirius scowled quickly before composing him and saying "No it had to be done this way. Otherwise everything would have been ruined. Harry, I'm afraid this will be a short meeting. Remus and I have been doing research in some old magic that we think can help you defeat Voldemort."

Ignoring the scowl that Sirius thought he missed Harry asked excitedly "Professor Lupin is here?"

"Yes, but you won't be seeing him for a while. You have an adventure or dare I say adventures that you must embark on your own. All I ask for you is to not take anything Charlus says to heart pup."

Harry looked at Sirius perplexingly. That was the second time someone mentioned somebody named Charlus to him. Then it smacked him in the face. It was obvious now, he knew his dad's parents had taken him in so Charlus must be his grandfather but how can someone who supposed to be dead say something that would hurt him?

Sirius, seeing that Harry was thinking about what he had said, said, "I must get back to researching Harry but in the meantime when you go to the Hall of Stone shout the words of the marauders to the heavens and you will begin your next great adventure! See you soon!"

Before Harry could say anything Sirius got up and disapparated. Nothing made any sense to Harry. He knew that he was going to be chosen for something and that it had something to do with his grandfather but how was he supposed to learn all this from a Hall of Stone? He was curious and his curiosity led to him asking Snoopy to bring him to the Hall.

When he arrived, he was simply amazed. He looked in around in awe at the statues, not even noticing the fact that he was now alone. It was a weird feeling; it was almost like the room was alive and breathing. He turned to the very first statue and examined it more carefully. It was beautifully crafted and if it wasn't the color of stone then one might mistake it for a real human. He read the name off the nameplate on the base of the statue and laughed. So this was the man that cursed his family into only having male heirs.

He walked to the center of the room and looked around. All of them seemed to be the same, beautifully crafted so they would look like exact replicas of the person that they were except for one. One caught his eye. Harry walked up to it slowly and ran his hand over it very slowly. He smiled as tears came to his eyes. He should have known that his dad would have wanted to be different.

He caressed the stag gently to make sure that he wouldn't ruin it. Grief washed over him and the tears came harder. This was his entire fault.. He never felt so alone in his life, his friends had all but abandoned him, his parents were dead and he had a mad man that wanted to kill him. He couldn't do this alone. He needed help.

Harry dropped to his knees and lowered him head. It finally hit him. He couldn't and wouldn't beat Voldemort. He was going to die at his hands and there wasn't anything anybody could do about it. His parent's deaths would be for nothing.

Suddenly, he felt himself being pulled up roughly by his shirt. The statue next to his dad's had sprung to life and seemingly attacked him. It threw him back towards the center of the room and returned to its original stance. Harry was shocked. He got to his feet and got close enough to read the nameplate; Charlus Potter. His grandfather that the ghost and Sirius had warned about had attacked him but why? Wait, Sirius. He had forgotten all about what Sirius had told him to say.

He picked his head up and looked towards the sky and shouted "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good!"

Harry stumbled a bit when the ground below him began to move but quickly regained his footing. He watched in awe as a golden staircase was revealed to him. He descended the stairs quickly only to be meant by a sudden darkness. He had left his wand at Privet Drive but felt something at the end of the darkness tugging at his magic. He pressed his body up against the wall and methodically moved through the darkness praying that there weren't any traps.

He finally reached the end and sighed, happy that nothing happened to him before an angry voice beat his eardrum viciously.

"I have never known a Potter to be such a fool" said the voice, and Harry looked around to find the source. He was immediately floored. This is what Sirius and Aldrich had been talking about! There had to be thousands of them which didn't make any sense based on the number of statues, and by the look of some of them he could tell that he was related. He immediately looked to what appeared to be the last of the portraits, hoping that they would be in order. He couldn't help the tears that formed when he saw a face that was exactly like his staring back at him.

"Dad?" Harry asked softly hoping it wasn't too good to be true and when the portrait nodded, he couldn't help but cry out in happiness.

His happiness was quickly torn from him ruthlessly by the portrait next to his father's voice, the same voice from earlier.

"The only reason you did not die in the darkness is because we deactivate the traps as you foolishly walked in blindly. Had you cast a simple 'Lumos', the traps would have deactivated themselves, but you don't seem to have your wand. Only a fool doesn't have his wand with him at all times."

Harry recognized this man from the features in the statue that attacked him. It was his grandfather and it would only make sense for it to be his grandfather, after all it was the portrait right before his father's.

"I'm sorry sir, I was in a rush to leave my relatives and-"

"Sounds like an excuse to me. One should never be without his wand, unless of course he can produce wandless magic. Tell me Harry, can you preform wandless magic?" Charlus interrupted.

"No."

"Then there is no excuse for you not to have your wand" Charlus concluded.

"I'm sorry sir" Harry said.

"You should be sorry. You're the reason why the Diggory's heir died" Charlus replied angrily.

"How is that my fault? What did you expect me to do shield him from the spell. Or did you forget that it was the killing curse?" Harry asked angrily.

"Yes, I expected you to shield it. You could have taken many actions like summoning a stone, conjuring a wall, something! No, I forgot who I was talking. This is the boy who relies way to much on a nosy know it all and a witless red haired vacuum. Merlin help us if-"

"Watch it dad, it is not your job to expose their secrets. It very well could be treason" James warned.

Charlus retorted "And you talk about treason?"

Harry was confused. He had no clue whose secrets that they were talking about but he had no time to think about because Charlus began to speak to him again "It is not that he died on your watch it's that you sat back and did nothing. It does not matter what you may or may not have been taught, magic is more about intent then anything. Tell me Harry why does the Cruciatus inflict pain?"

Harry put his head down. He was right about Cedric. That was what haunted his dreams most about everything that happened. He had just watched. Defeated Harry answered "I don't know sir."

"It's because the caster wants it to! However the great mystery of magic is that it works on belief. Tell me Harry, if a person never experienced the Cruciatus curse before how do they know it hurts?"

"They wouldn't unless someone told them it was supposed to hurt." Harry answered curiously. He was interested where his grandfather was going with this, plus he didn't seem to want to berate him anymore so that was a plus.

"Exactly, people recognize pain when they hear 'Crucio' and because they expect pain they feel pain. If wizards and witches were able to deprogram themselves from the expectations of simple words then that is half the battle! Magic is all about intent and knowledge. Sure, if it still manages to hit you cleanly it will hurt but were talking a mild annoyance compared to intense torture that comes with believing in the regular spell, depending on the caster."

Harry looked at his grandfather curiously and said "I'm not quite sure what you mean. "

"Simply put Harry, if someone weak cast a killing curse at you and were able to make yourself believe that the spell would not harm you then it wouldn't but if Voldemort cast a killing curse at you and you didn't believe that it would harm you it would probably still cause minor scratches and cuts but why take the damage when you can block it"

"I thought the killing curse couldn't be blocked…" Harry began before stopping realizing exactly what his grandfather was going to say.

"Nobody believes in this type of magic anymore people wouldn't know what to expect. For example, if Voldemort cast a killing curse at you and you responded with protego he would most certainly laugh. Based on what he was taught he would assume that his spell would automatically pass through your shield and kill you but because of your believe that the spell would not harm you coupled with the belief that your shield will stop his spell than he spell will be stopped instantly by your shield. Then to top it off, once your shield stops his killing curse, he believes that your shield can stop anything making it that much stronger" Charlus said.

"But sir, wouldn't that also make my shield weaker based on his belief that his spell would just pass through my shield?" Harry asked, confusion pumping through his veins.

"That's the beauty of it Harry. Tell me, if I hadn't told about any of this type magic would what would you do if you cast a killing curse and somebody responded with a shield charm?" Charlus asked.

Harry though about a moment and a light bulb went off in his head. "I would only assume that my spell would go through the shield and kill my target but because there is a difference between beliefs and assumptions, I would never truly believe that my spell would pass through the shield and therefore the curse would never make it past that person's spell."

"Exactly Harry, now tell me what happens when your hit by a spell you have clue what it does?"

Harry didn't know. This magic seemed to be based on a person's belief more than anything but if you didn't know what a spell did, how could you believe anything? Plus you really couldn't block it with your own beliefs because you wouldn't know how.

"I don't know sir" Harry finally said.

"You would simply feel the full effect of the spell, which is why muggles feel the effects of magic. Magic doesn't forgive ignorance. If one is ignorant to a spell then intent of the caster wins every time. Tell me Harry which Crucio is worst the first or the second?"

"I would assume the second. If you do not know that it hurts in the first place then the intent of the caster would still make it hurt, but after you knew that it hurt then you expect the pain and so it hurts even more" Harry said.

"Correct again. With the killing curse, because it one of the few permanent spells, the person hit with the spell would die if they had no prior knowledge of it. Knowledge is important Harry. Magic in its raw form is just intent. When this changed people started coming up names for spells but without intent the words mean nothing. If you wanted to, you could cast Crucio with intent to tickle a person and if you really believed that that's what the spell would do then that's what it would do. Once you learn this method of magic it will even be easier because now people have a meaning to every spell making it that much easier to counter."

"So, How do I learn it?"

Charlus laughed and smiled. "Almost Ten thousand years of experience Harry."

Harry's face dropped. He didn't have that long to learn anything and started to wonder if this was one big joke. "I don't have ten thousand years sir."

Then he heard a voice. The voice was old, not your normal kind of old like the old lady who might ask you to carry her groceries, no is sounded thousands of years old. His sounded very calm and wise but said, in tone that had meant business, "But you do my, boy you do." For the second time that day, he felt the ground shift. A rock pillar rose from the ground elegantly and on top of it was the most beautifully crafted golden ring that Harry had ever seen.

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A/N: Tell me what do you think? R&R!


	4. Merlin and Arthur

A/N: Thanks to everybody who reviewed, favorited and followed this. I really appreciate it! Anywho, I do not own Harry Potter!

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Harry looked around the room for the source of the voice before finding it at the very top of the room. It was one of the first portraits very high up in the room. There seemed to be only a few rows of portraits above him.

"Charlus, do you mind if we switch portraits? I don't want Harry to strain his neck too much trying to talk to me" the portrait laughed heartily as Charlus nodded and began to move swiftly through the portraits until he stood next to the man before bowing. The man followed exact same path down to Charlus's portrait. The man looked very familiar and he was sure he had seen him before.

"Hello Harry. I believe you may be wondering who I am. I also believe you may be wondering how we know so much about your life."

Harry just nodded so the man continued "I am Merlin."

Harry's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe that he was related to the Merlin.

Merlin only laughed before saying "Now the rest of this story is not really mine to tell without help but I will begin. When the gift of magic was first given to man it very much worked like Charlus explained. You see the men at the very top? Those men were some of the pioneers of magic and members of this family great family."

"Along the way Magic changed into what it is now. I understand why that change happened. Magic is much simpler with words that describe beliefs rather than just pure belief."

"If Magic now is easier than why have me learn the old way sir?" Harry asked as politely as he could.

"Wizards and witches have forgotten about basic magic Harry. Can you imagine what would happen if Voldemort was to cast a killing curse at you and you were to block it? He would start to lose that aura of invincibility that engulfs him and people finally would begin to fight back."

Harry nodded so Merlin continued. "Now back to our family history. My ancestors before me decided that it would be best to create portraits of ourselves to help future generations so that's how you get this room. However, long after I was dead a direct descendent of mine was killed before he could produce a male heir leaving his wife and daughter behind. His daughter would one day marry Ignotus Peverell, who instead of producing two male heirs for two separate families decided to just combine the families into one"

Much to Harry's surprise Merlin than got up without a word and went back to his own portrait. He watched in awe as he grandfather bowed again and walked to another portrait and traded places with that man.

The man got to Charlus's portrait and smiled at Harry brightly before continuing the story "I am Ignotus Peverell. Tell me Harry have you ever heard the tale of the three brothers?"

"No" Harry replied. He honestly didn't have a clue what Ignotus was talking about."

"My brothers and I were traveling to Egypt to study. On our way we came to a raging river that had no way to cross it. So we built a bridge only to be blocked by death himself who was angry that we did not fall. He promised us gifts but I knew better. My eldest brother was given a wand. He went on to kill one of his rivals and brag about the wand causing him to be murdered and the wand to be stolen. Death's gift to my eldest brother turned out to be nothing more than another way for him to claim his victims." Ignotus said pausing to take a breath.

"My second brother had lost his one true love and wanted to embarrass death for taking her from him so he asked for a way to recall loved ones from the grave. Death gave him a stone that he claimed would do just what my brother asked and gave him a stone. I later found out that the stone did just as death claimed it would do but soon my brother's love grew sad. She realized she did not belong here and wished to move on. My brother loved her so much he killed himself to be with her and death had finally gained his second victim. However the stone was lost and death could not pass his gift on to claim more victims."

"I myself knew that Death had revenge on his mind. He wanted nothing more than to watch us die and claim out souls for embarrassing him so I asked for a cloak that would hide me from him forever. He took the cloak off of his back and gave it to me and I hid. I later meant my wife Emily Aylwin. When we were married the goblins told her of her heritage and we came to this house and made it our home. I was exploring the place one day when I found these portraits. They taught me so much about magic but like you I was already used to the way magic is preformed now but I knew there was no way and gave up."

"I grew old and knew that death would claim me soon as he previously did my wife so I called to him and told him I was ready. I fully expected him to be angry with me for evading him all this time but to my great surprise he told me that I taught him a lesson that he needed to be taught. Anyway, he decided to give me a gift to pass on to my family and I chose knowledge. With death's help I was able to capture take everything these great men have ever learned and put it to that ring you see behind you. He also made it possible so that the ring would absorb the knowledge of everybody who ever put it on after. "

"Knowledge never dies" Harry whispered softly to himself finally realizing what it meant.

"Precisely Harry. This ring now gives the wearer a ten thousand year old magic base and with it you will be able to perform magic based on pure belief. You will also gain countless life experiences and the ability to perform Occlumency, a form of magic protecting the mind, although it will be up to you to build your defenses. However it is not to be confused with the family rings. Those just give you political knowledge and family spells, this gives you everything."

"I would also like to tell you that it was because of an old friend we were able to keep track of your life. Fawkes belongs to house Peverell and because of marriage house Potter. He has been spying on a lot of the younger heirs of this family for us for a long time. Dumbledore isn't the man you think he is Harry but I suppose your father will want to tell you more about that."

Harry was floored but was confused at the same time. If that was the case then why… he turned to his father for answers. "Why couldn't you defeat Voldemort then dad?"

"I never put the ring on because when my father died your mother was pregnant plus Dumbledore had just told us about the prophecy. Think about it Harry, when you put on that ring your teaching yourself ten thousand years of information. You are basically in a coma for however long it takes your brain to accumulate the information. It could be months or maybe even years before you finally woke up. I didn't want to leave your mother alone for that long. James said.

"What prophecy?" Harry asked curiously.

"You mean Dumbledore never told you?" James asked obviously furious which got worse when Harry shook his head.

"It seems like Dumbledore is more of a monster than I thought. Before I died I found out some things about him Harry and I doubted them but because of the information Fawkes has given us I know them to be true. Dumbledore is an evil man. He made Grindelwald into the monster he was because he knew he could beat him. Then he turned around created Voldemort hoping to be able to beat him and become greater than Merlin himself. Voldemort got out of control so he intends on using you to weaken him and then defeating him himself making you a martyr in the process. Everything that happened to you in your life has been setup by him. He wants nothing more than fame, glory and revenge on muggles for destroying his sister" James said.

Harry went still and his eyes flashed dangerously. Deep down he wasn't all that surprised but that didn't stop it from hurting. He had trusted him, and now that Harry had known the truth Dumbledore would never get his trust back. Dumbledore was dead as far as Harry was concerned but something else was bothering him.

"What about Ron and Hermione?" Harry asked quietly. He didn't want it to be true but didn't want to leave it up to chance.

"No Harry. They are your friends. Dumbledore did ask Molly to look out for you in the train station but that was all. Everything else is completely genuine. I even suspect Ron will need you more than ever soon."

Harry was relived but now knew what he had to do. He walked to the ring and circled it. It seemed to call out to him, longing to put on. He reached out to it and put it on. At first he was confused but then he faded slowly into the blackness. Death smiled.

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Ron Weasley lied alone in the grass crying softly, hoping that no one would come to look for him. Sure if they found him he would lie effortlessly and blame it on the fact that Harry was gone. He supposed that he was supposed to be happy all it felt like was that the stone noose had let go of one thing and tightened its grip around his neck, slowly choking the life out of him. Harry being gone didn't really help either.

Although it felt good to be home and away from that dirty old home, where days were gloomy at best and nights were nightmares, he almost wished Sirius never went missing in the first place. Maybe then things wouldn't have changed. Maybe then he would go back to being jealous of Harry. Now he knew what it felt like and quite frankly he didn't want it. The noose tightened.

His tears dried instantly at the sound of grass rustling gently and wondered who could be coming to look for him. His face instantly lit up at the sight of her, she was the most beautiful thing his eyes had ever seen. He wanted so badly to scream to the rooftops and tell her how he felt but didn't have to guts too. Well until now, life was too short to delay anything. The noose made it hard to breathe.

"Ron" she said softly, her angelic voice loosened the noose for a second but it would not lose, especially when he couldn't tell her. Well he could, but would she still see him the same way? He wasn't even sure she felt the same way about him without knowing, would knowing change it? He frowned doing his best as the tears were fighting furiously to break down the dam, but his ego wouldn't let them. Not in front of her. He felt his neck crack.

"Are you okay?" she asked and when she got no response lied down next to him and grabbed his hand in hers. His inside's exploded with happiness and suddenly the noose let go completely. Maybe life wouldn't be so bad if only he could live the rest of it with her. He let out a sigh, the only hint of an emotion he had shown since it happened.

"He wouldn't want you to be like this you know" his bushy haired beauty said softly. She was right of course, but he didn't believe it. He couldn't come to grips with the fact that his best friend could be dead. It didn't make sense and for some reason, when Dumbledore told the story, the old man lost some of his allure. This was once this ring around Dumbledore that made him untouchable, it didn't seem that way anymore. Partly because his mind dissected Dumbledore's logic easily like it was butter. It was almost too easy. Life would be boring then. He frowned; the noose began to tighten again.

"He isn't gone Hermione" he said with less confidence then he would have hoped. He continued anyway "Harry once told us that Dumbledore told him that the reason he had to go back there was to recharge the wards. If the wards failed like Dumbledore claims, then he wasn't there to charge them in the first place. Hopefully Sirius got him."

"Why would Dumbledore lie?" Hermione replied quickly but it was uncertain. He sighed in defeat. He didn't really feel like arguing with her. He saw this with her a lot; people in authority were like gods to her. Nothing they said could be wrong. It was hard to breathe again.

He was silent again. He hoped that he could just enjoy her company but the uncertainty of the future made it so hard to just relax especially when he had so many questions that it seemed no one could answer because this just became too much of a routine for them. Now they just watched helplessly as the stone noose tightened around his neck. Good thing goblins existed.

A slight breeze picked up and turned his attention back to her as the wonderful smells of her hair entered his nose. He wanted to tell her, he really did but was now the right time? Yes, he decided. It was now or never. Maybe then he could finally the weight would life and he could breathe.

"Harry being gone made me realized some things" he lied easily, way too easily for his liking. He sighed heavily before continuing truthfully "It made me realize that I Lo-"

"But Harry isn't gone right?" she interrupted softly.

He stopped breathing.

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A/N:As always reviews are welcome!


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